On that same day, Jun had invited 2 of his friends over to his apartment (pictured on the left). They had planned to go out to McDonalds for their lunch that day (there was only 1 McDonalds shop in Sao Paulo in those days, would you believe!). McDonalds which had been newly built in Avenida Paulista, was a good place for their get-together. Avenida Paulista is the center of business in Sao Paulo and also the center of the boys' activities. The friends were Andres Luminati and Chuck Drees. Andres was a 15 year old Italian who had resided in various countries of Latin America, namely Argentina, Venezuela and Mexico since he was very young. He had come to Brazil 2 years before. He was a keen music listener but did not play any musical instruments. Chuck was a 15 year old American who lived in California until he moved to Sao Paulo 2 years before. They were all from the same school and often made such get-togethers. Before they went out, they had listened to that tape from England. The music excited the minds of the 3 boys. They were very curious to hear this music from the tape. Their feeling was "if they can do this, why can't we?". These emotions in the boys' mind later became an incentive as one of the greatest activities ever made. Andres was always interested in making a rock group, and his dream was to play as a guitarist in that group. So here began the long adventure of establishing a rock group.

By 12th of March, the plan was already made up and the action was taken the very next day. (Plan: There was a big hold-up in getting foreign musical instruments into Brazil. The extremely high import tariff laid on foreign products to protect Brazilian national industry had direct impact upon the boys' attempt to purchase them. Therefore the plan was to purchase second-hand instruments which should be much much cheaper). In Sao Paulo, there was a weekly magazine called Segunda-mao meaning "second-hand" (later the name became Primeira-mao but it will be referred to here as Segunda-mao) which advertised many buying and selling of second hand goods.
So on Friday, the 13th of March, Jun went out to the usual bookstand to buy the magazine. There, in the music section, he found an offer for a second-hand guitar for 3,000 cruzeiros. That was the cheapest price a guitar can be sold. Hearing of that, Andres immediately decided to see the guitar the next day.

As it happened that the next day was the farewell party of a friend Carlos Liang in McDonalds in the afternoon (pictured on the right), the 2 boys took a bus to the guitar guy's house to see the guitar in the morning. The place was pretty easy to find as it was very close to the bus route. The reason why they had to go to the place before calling the man was that this man did not have any telephone!
When the boys arrived in front of the house, they were absolutely despaired. The house was like a slum. The building was old, no ringing bell, and the man who answered them was a sluttish guy. He had shaggy hair, wore ripped shirt and ragged trousers. With bewilderment, the boys followed reluctantly after the man into the house. They had to climb up the stairs in order to get to this man's house. Above the stairs was a little yard made of cement and concrete leading to the man's house. The inside of the house was just as bad as the outside. It was old, made of stone and dirty., There were lots of ragged clothes hanging down from the string put across the room. There were urchins running up and down the house with ragged clothes or even without clothes. The boys wondered why on earth should a guitar be possessed by a person living in the house like this.
According to the man, the advert which came on the Segunda-mao was not right. It should have been 18,000 cruzeiros (!). Hearing of that, the boys lost their hope, since the most they could afford was up to 10,000. From fear that the man could mug them if they refused it on the spot, they decided to look at it at least. The boys were led to a dark room with an old sofa where they seated themselves. The boys were getting worried. While they were waiting, few urchins ran across in front of them wearing sacks on their heads and only wearing underwear. The boys were scared: "we could be mugged any minute!" So they decided "If the guy comes with the guitar, even if it looks bad, let's just say 'oh que bonito' and say 'we'll be back later'".
Soon the man appeared with his guitar inside a half-broken case together with an unknown-if-it-functions amplifier. The guitar itself didn't look bad, but it certainly was not worth 18,000 cru. All the boys could mutter was "que guitarra bonita! (my ass!)", "e boa (this is a piece of sh**!)". "Let's get the hell out of here before we get mugged!", and promising the guy that they will come back later (obviously never did), the boys left the house in despair without even taking the bus back. They slowly walked towards McDonalds in Avenida Paulista.

By the next month, they had decided to put an ad themselves on that Segunda mao in the compra-se section. On the 2nd of April, the ad went on the magazine. The two boys waited for some phonecalls. Incidentally, the ad was written as follows:
Compro uma guitarra, e um contrabaixo. Pago ate 8000 cada. Tratar com Andre 282-5283.
The bass was for Jun, who was interested in buying and playing it. "Where there's will, there's way" and by the 10th of that month, there were two phonecalls, one of which probably was a joke, as when the guy called up Andres (Jun was present) and told him that he had a bass which he can sell, the two boys were as happy as they could be (even gave a toast to each other with some vodka), only to find out later that the telephone number given was a wrong one! The other phonecall was decent, and with a correct phone number. This person lived in Avenida Paulista, which was close to the boys' houses so they decided to have a look at the guitar. The price incidentally was 4000 cruzeiros. In the morning of April 10th, the boys with the promise that the person who is selling the guitar will meet them at nine sharp, went to the apartment in Avenida Paulista. First of all, they arrived at about ten minutes to nine, all nervous and excited only to find the person out of the apartment. So instead, his family received them. They were led into a living-room where they sat down and waited for the guitar. When the guitar came into their sight, all the excitement had just disappeared into thin air. The guitar was made of wood - that was normal. It was a little bit old - but not too old. The big fault was that the guitar had not strings! The father of that person told the two boys that they should supply the strings themselves. Since there were no strings, there was no way the boys could know if the guitar functioned. Therefore Andres asked:
"Does this guitar function normally?" and the man answered:
"Well, I really can't tell because it's my son's, and I've got nothing to do with this."
"Oh...". Then suddenly, the man reached to the weirdest solution to see whether this guitar functioned or not.
"I'll open up the guitar, and see if it is working." (!!!!!)
So the man cried out:
"My dear, please get me a screw driver!" Soon, his wife answered:
"Well, I can't find one right now!" To the boys' surprise, the man shouted,
"Well, get me a knife! A knife will do!" This was terrible. A man got hold of the knife, and started to loosen the screws. However, this man was old. He had no control of his hands. As he put the knife onto the first screw, the knife skidded right across the guitar like a skater on ice.
This made a biiig scratch mark on the wooden part of the guitar. Nevertheless, the man merely uttered "oops!", and didn't seem to care. He kept on unscrewing doing the same mistake several times until the guitar was full of scratch marks. At last, he managed to release the plastic piece from the wooden base. They were connected by some pieces of wire. What seemed strange was that there were band-aids around the pieces of wire to prevent them from separating. (!) It was clear that the guitar was not in the right shape (It even became worse after all this!). Nevertheless, the man answered,
"Well, I don't know but it looks all right" (!!!!)
The man was old. They could not blame him for this, but the next action taken by the man was irresistable! He had, in his hand, a piece of spring taken out from the guitar which was supposed to be put back onto the stem of the plastic part. He just said,
"Ahhh, this is useless!" and just thrown it away. (!)
Now it was 100% clear that the guitar did not function. With a struggle with his knife again, the man put back the screws into the guitar and said,
"Well, that's the best I can do for you, boys. See, my son who is the owner of this guitar isn't here." The boys did not argue. By now, they were just gaping at the guitar and the man, uttering
"Er, we'll come back when your son is at home" without the slightest intention of doing so. The boys left the apartment cracking up. They could not take it as anything but a joke. This incident was really too much for them to take seriously. They walked towards home dropping at Mcdonalds for their early lunch.

The buying of Segunda-mao became a weekly task for the two boys, but there were problems in getting to see the guitar. First of all, the things for sale in that magazine are quickly traded. This meant that the magazine had to be bought and the call be made immediately. This was a great problem for the boys as they had school to attend. Even if the magazine was bought in the morning before going to school, there was no way they could call the people from school. By the time the school is over, the guitars would always have been sold if they were good offers. So they only had access to the worst ads. Another problem is that nine out of ten people making the ads are never at home. By the 4th week, Andres was mentally exhausted. Finally a decision was made to put an end to this. On the 2nd of May, Jun received a phonecall from Andres saying: "Look, I'm really tired of all this! We're not getting anywhere with these ads! This is what I'm going to do. I'm going back to Italy this summer for a holiday. There, the guitars are much cheaper and better, so I'll buy a guitar and bring it back here." That sounded a good idea, but it also sounded a long time away. But of course, Jun was forced to agree. He was also convinced that he should get drums because a guitar and a set of drums are enough for a group - or rather, drums were the most important instrument. So Jun's intention changed to buying drums. Thus he kept on buying Segunda-mao and kept looking for the drum ads.

On the 28th of June, Andres left for Italy with a hope of getting a guitar. Meanwhile, Jun was struggling to get the drums through the Segunda mao magazine. He had then made a compra-se ad for a set of drums. On the 2nd of July, there was a phonecall from a guy called Sidney who was selling a set for 17,000 cruzeiros. This offer didn't sound like a bad one, so on the next day, he went to this guy's house. This guy's house was pretty big and he must have been pretty rich since there were maids, a big car and a video equipment (rare stuff at the time in Brazil) in the house. Seeing all this, Jun expected a good stuff, especially as the previous tries had been very unsuccessful. The drums were kept in the garage and it was old - about 7 years old. Metal bits were rusted and the sides had no shine. The drums were, as Sidney put it, descuidada. Jun saw that the drums were not bad, but it certainly did not worth 17,000 cruzeiros. Jun promised to come back on the 11th (Saturday), with his father to see if he can make a little more discount and if he can buy it. But, he was not lucky. On the 9th of July, Sidney called up saying "My ad went on the Segunda mao, and I had a very good offer of 25,000 cruzeiros, so I will sell it to this guy, OK?". Jun was surprized to hear that the set could have been sold for such a high price, but now that he can't do anything about it, he calmly put the receiver down.

By the 3rd of August, the school had began. Now, the two boys had a chance to find new members for the group and/or new instruments. In the second period of that day, which was art, Jun sat next to a guy named Steve Edwards, a Gibraltar-born Venezuelan (sitting in the middle, right picture - already a drummer at heart?). They started talking -
"Is Andres Luminati coming back?"
"Yea, he's coming back at the end of the week" etc.
They didn't talk too much except about their artwork. But this became another turning point to the group's life. After Andres returned to school, the relationship between Andres, Jun and Steve deepened. Since Andres knew Steve well from the year before, they talked about the rock group they were trying to make and by the 11th, Steve decided to join the group as a drummer.

The group had its first official practice on the 16th of August. Andres' guitar was a Les Paul model Eko guitar, which he brought back from Italy. It was completely new and also much much cheaper than what one can buy in Brazil. In fact, about half the price. Andres also bought an amplifier in Brazil the day before, which had cost him more than the guitar! The group is now getting more and more complete with Jun's Roland synthesizer which he had in possesion, and Steve's to-be-purchased drum set. Some of the first music they played was Fun in Space, selections from Asphalt Pilots ("Kevin, the mentor"'s group), Chuck please stop (modified lyrics of Rock 'round the Clock) and Silly Thing by Sex Pistols. This day, in a sense, was a day to be commemorated.
Steve, on the other hand, was looking for his drums though already, relationship between Steve and the two was going for the worse. At the same time, Andres and Jun was in connection with a Dutch guy named John Sayde who was a keen music listener. He was interested in joining the group too, and so Andres convinced John to buy drums also, although his preference was playing guitar (everybody wants play guitar, don't they?). So the race between Steve and John started.
The race was a very slow one since both of them got nowhere. The group kept on giving ultimatums, but this did not help. In the first place, John was not as interested in the whole affair, and Steve was not trying hard enough. The group was getting more and more frustrated. They were even thinking of changing the drummer completely. But soon, the worry was going off the group's mind. On the 7th of September, Steve was going to see the drums which he found in the Segunda-mao. He invited other members of the group also, so they went to see the drums together.

The drums were owned by a guy who lived in an isolated place near the airport. As always with this group, the owner of the drums was not at home. Though since his family was there, the group was able to see the instrument. It was Gope drums (most famous manufacturer in Brazil) that were bem usada and very very descuidada. The cymbals were cracked up (the group wondered why), the bass drum had no front covering nor frame, the side screws were missing and rusted, the legs of the drums were broken, and the rhythm sticks were scratched, taped and snapped. The group's honest comment was "this is a piece of s***". The owner of the drums wanted 17,000 for the set. The group convinced Steve to purchase the set only because it was better than not having one and of course, it was good enough for a beginner group like them (at least, at the time, they thought so). From Steve's reaction however, the group judged that he was not going to get these drums. All the group could do was to pray that Steve will buy them. As anticipated, Steve did not get the drums because his father stopped him from buying them. So the group was half-despaired until on Sunday, 13th of Septermber, the group received a call from Steve that he had bought the drums the previous day! Thus a practise session was arranged on that very day. Now the group was beginning to look like a "rock group".

The following Saturday, there was another practise session, this time with an audience. The audience was a girl which Steve liked, and the plan was to encourage Steve to play better with the girl acting as a "catalyst" (left picture: the group poses with the "audience" Myrjam). This plan did not work however, but the group was able to accomplish something very important - to play a complete music from beginning to the end (!) This had not been done before; all the music played was in fragments. Here, another problem arose. Steve could not take his drums home because he lived far from Andres' house and Steve had no car to carry his drums home. As a natural consequence, the drums stayed at Andres' house and Steve had no chance to practise. This gave no way for him to improve his drumming technique. By the third practise (October 11th) Steve was drumming just as well (bad) as the first practise. The group (except Steve) became desperate and was beginning to worry about the future of the band specially as they were planning to go for the talent show, an annual event held in their school.

To be continued

Copyright(C)Jun Honda